I have always been a fan of comic books since I was a kid. I love good guys. I love the different nuances and the backstories, the motivations and the struggles. I love the sacrifice and the triumphs. I just love the good guy.
Back in 2004, I was exposed to MMORPGs (massive multiplayer online roleplaying games). I loved the concept of being able to immerse myself in a world where I could use my imagination to play a creative avatar from my mind. My first MMORPG fed that part of me that loved the good guy in spades and then some. The name of the game was City of Heroes.
City of Heroes was based in the fictional metropolis of Paragon City. It soon crossed over into other dimensions later on. It had, to this day, the best character creator to ever come out in a MMORPG until this day. You can still experience the City of Heroes Costume Creator though, sadly, you cannot experience the game anymore. City of Heroes closed its doors November 30th, 2012.
I miss that game. I miss that game a lot because that game helped me develop stories from characters that I had created within it. An example of that is my first novel, Blackson’s Revenge. That actually was the name of one of my characters. Well…not exactly. His name was actually Blackthorn’s Revenge but then I did a search online and found out that was the name of an popular Ultima Online game expansion. So I changed it up a tad. But the story and what will happen in the book was all inspired from the character I created in City of Heroes, down to the way he looks.
I’ve heard of novelists who have a hard time coming up with ideas for books. On a legal notepad in front of me at this moment, I have a list of the tentative titles for twenty-three fiction novel ideas. Of those, twelve came from characters I created in City of Heroes. That game has had a phenomenal impact on my writing. It literally started it all and I have no problem coming up with ideas. They are already there.
As I said before, I miss that game tremendously until this day. Yes, there are other superhero MMOs out there but they cannot hold a candle to City of Heroes. It was truly one of a kind. I’m blessed to have been a part of a great community (and one that still thrives on Facebook).
My desire is to give to others what I received from the game which was a great and memorable experience. Hats off to the greatest superhero video game ever made. You will be sorely missed.
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